The San Sebastian Street Festival kicks off in Old San Juan this Thursday Jan 13 until Sunday Jan 16. This is the largest festival in Puerto Rico with thousands of locals and visitors descending on Old San Juan to PARTY by day and by night. Think Mardis Gras or Notting Hill Carnival to get an idea.
This year the San Sebastian Street Festival is dedicated to singer and songwriter Tito El Bambino for his music and work with local children here in Puerto Rico. He will be presented with the award at the opening ceremony on Thursday Jan 13.
Three more local artists; El Jibaro, El Topo and Tony Mapeyé will receive the National San Sebastian 2011 Award on Sunday 16 January.
There will also be be around 300 local artisans and over 50 musical groups taking part over the 4 days.
Saying that Old San Juan is going to be busy is an understatement. For those of you planning on attending the Festival or just staying in or visiting Old San Juan; here are my Survival Tips for the San Sebastian Street Festival
- If you are NOT staying in Old San Juan, plan to arrive there as early as possible. Traffic into Old San Juan is going to be extremely heavy and slow due to the influx of festival goers and road closures.
- Rather than drive into Old San Juan, consider taking the ferry from either Hato Rey or Catano – just make sure you know when the last ferry leaves Old San Juan (usually this is around 9pm for Hato Rey and 10pm for Catano, but later ferry’s may be available due to the festival.
- If there are any musical groups you really want to see, make sure you get to the main music stage located at Plaza Quinto Centenario early to get a good position. Just look for the large totem pole type structure, just up from San Sebastian Street.
- It’s ALWAYS hot in Old San Juan, so make sure you drink lots of fluids and not just the alcoholic kind.
- The Mayor of San Juan has said that the festival will end each day at 1am (12am on Sunday night), so if you plan on staying until the early hours make sure you have arranged transport back to where you are staying as the police will not take kindly to folks partying on past these finishing times.
- If it rains don’t worry, the party will continue and there is bound to be some entrepreneur selling plastic ponchos
- If you need a breather from all the action of the festival, just head down hill through Old San Juan and check out Paseo de La Princesa; it should be a little less crowded there.
- Finally if you have a fear of crowded places, then San Sebastian Street and Old San Juan might not be the best place for you this weekend. Consider heading out away from San Juan for a daytrip.
If you have any other survival tips for the San Sebastian Street Festival, please let us know in the comments below
What: San Sebastian Street Festival
Where: San Sebastian Street and various locations in Old San Juan
When: Jan 13 – 16, 2011
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Can’t wait to be there! Do you know about any of the ferry schedules for the neighboring islands? Also, the days end at 1am? (you have 1 pm in your post). Great post. You definitely keep me up to date on what’s happening and Old San Juan is one of my favorite places to visit!!
Thanks for spotting the typo I did mean 1am as for ferry’s I found this info http://www.usvi.net/usvi/ferry.htm see bottom of page – probly best to phone the number on that page
You might want to check for flights rather than the ferry